Archive 2015 - 2018

COVENTRY CONSTRUCTIVIST CENTRE
FOUNDATION COURSE 2018 >>

COVENTRY CONSTRUCTIVIST CENTRE
FOUNDATION COURSE 2018

The course will provide an introduction to the theory and principles of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). The theoretical base of PCP is broad and robust, which makes this an approach with wide applicability in clinical and educational settings, but also in supervision, coaching, staff management, staff development, and organisational change. Following completion of the Foundation Course there are opportunities to attend further workshops and supervision in order to help you to begin to apply the theory in your own setting, should you wish.

Personal Construct Psychotherapy, which has developed from PCP, is a flexible approach to therapy which is well suited to consultation and short term work, as well as to more intensive clinical work. It is suitable for all client groups, ages, and ranges of ability. In this age of the quick fix, Personal Construct Psychotherapy is often useful when other therapies have failed to produce sustained improvement.

The course is taught by tutors who have many years of experience in PC, and are all HCPC registered. Between them, they have a range of publications about their therapeutic work using PCP. The tutors are Diane Allen, Peter Cummins, Heather Moran, Sally Robbins and Grant Weselby. A maximum of 14 places are available which means that the group is small enough for both good discussions and personalised teaching. The Foundation Course has always contained a large component of practical exercises which help participants to engage well with the materials presented. The course is delivered in a seminar format and so participants are expected to prepare for sessions in advance in order to benefit from this.

This course is offered in Coventry by the Coventry Constructivist Centre and runs for five full days. It is held at Queen’s Road Baptist Church, Coventry, from 10.00am – 4pm each day. Details can be found on the PCPA website at www.personalconstructuk.org and also on the Coventry PCP website at www.covpcp.com

The course dates are on Thursdays, : April 19th, April 26th, May 3rd, May 10th, and May 17th. The course fee is £175 for the whole course, which includes the seminar materials. The fee includes drinks and biscuits but it does not include lunch. Participants are asked to provide their own packed lunch for the short lunch break, or they can use the on site café.

If you would like to attend, please email sally@covpcp.com to book a place. When that is confirmed, you will need to pay the fee to secure your place, together with details of your name, professional role, personal email address & mobile number (for emergency contact in case of a problem before or during the course).

Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. In the event that there are insufficient numbers to proceed with the course, all monies will be refunded. Please note that the fee cannot be refunded for failure to attend once a place is reserved.

Our first bookings are in for EPCA here in Edinburgh and we are looking to encourage as many people as possible to take advantage of our early bird offer which ends on the 31st December 2017. Our early bird offer already allows you to save at least £100 if you register and book accommodation together.

If you do, we will enter your name into a prize draw that will take place if we get 100 registrations by the 31st December 2017*. The winner will get their registration fee refunded** and will be able to come for free. So book now and tell your friends to come too!

* Members of the organizing committee are excluded from the draw.
** The winner will still be liable for their own accommodation costs.

The prize draw will happen by 31st January 2018 and the decision of the organising committee will be final. The draw will only take place provided 100 people have registered for the conference by the closing date. Only people who have registered and booked accommodation are eligible to win.

PCPA Quarterly Study Day 15th September 2107 - Mary Frances

This Study Day was led by Mary Frances, a well known Organisational Consultant, Coach and PCP Teacher. The morning centred on her presentation at the 2016 EPCA Conference at Padua “Nests of meaning : alternative ways of understanding constructs”, but also gave participants to work on the issues raised when we move back from a focus on polar choices. In part this picks up ideas involved in Mary’s Preference Axis.
The afternoon started with a reprise of the presentation which Mary gave at the 2017 Alpine Tales conference in Italy together with Lucia Andreatta, “Identity, diversity and privilege”. This allowed us to take time to consider our construing of social identity and to work on identifying aspects of privilege which we may not have articulated before.

Study Days

The next PCPA Quarterly Study Day, which will be held on September 12th 2015, focusses on the work of Prof Jerald Forster from SeaDle USA, and will include an opportunity to participate in a 3 hour workshop “Recognise Your Strengths” based on his Articulating Strengths Together programme.

September 18th 2015 “Recognise Your Strengths” workshop and the work of Prof Jerald Forster led by Sally Robbins (papers to be circulated, so let me know if you are coming)

The next PCPA seminar is on Personal Construct Psychology in Education, which will run on September 26th 2015 at Syracuse University, London WC1N 3AE. The cost is £10, to include lunch and refreshments. Contact chris.walker@psi-uk.com or lizthomson@aol.com for information on this.

Mon 5 Oct 10:15am - 4:00pm Start of Coventry Foundation Course

FREE EBOOK ON USING PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY WITH KIDS

Using Personal Construct Psychology in Practice with Children & Adolescents, edited by Heather Moran, includes practical case work examples. You can get it in the iBook store or as an online version on Issuu.

For anyone who is wondering about PCP and what it is, and what you might actually do using this approach, you will find some nice case examples. The style is easy to read, deliberately aimed towards readers with less experience in PCP and beginners. It has been edited by Heather but there are chapters by various authors. There are many interesting interventions and assessment tools for use with this client group. It will suit psychologists, counsellors, teachers and coaches.

This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iPad, and with iTunes on your computer. Multi-touch books can be read with iBooks on your Mac or iPad. Books with interactive features may work best on an iPad. iBooks on your Mac requires OS X 10.9 or later.

Miller Mair's last book published

Miller Mair’s last book has just been published. As its editor Simon King says on the cover “Another way of knowing has the theme of a personal journey, taking in smaller themes as it feels its way forward… It should be read by anyone tired of bullying know-all reductionism, and feeling the need for another way of knowing”.

NEW ARTICLE ON COGNITIVE CONFLICTS IN MAJOR DEPRESSION

October 2014 saw the publication in a premier British Journal of the further research of Professor Guillem Feixas of the Barcelona centre showing that Implicative Dilemmas consistently occur in Depressed people. This research has been going on for some considerable time with presentations, (one at Herts University) and wide collaborations.

This is a very British Journal at the heart of clinical practice and there is a well known British figure, Professor David Winter, amongst the 17 who contributed. Very striking is mention of the widening of the Dilemma model to be used in other modalities of therapy as an “add-on”. There are also allusions to the presence of Dilemma focused formulations in other models such as Motivational Interviewing. There is mention of the involvement of CBT.

The article gives a very coherent account of the diagnostic steps involved leading to the Dilemma Formulation using a Repertory Grid method, inter alia. It is a how to do it item.

We are perhaps coming to the start of a season of RCT’s on Dilemma-focused therapies which will finally support notions which PCP has entertained since earlier time, namely that the system of construing will adapt in order to preserve meaning, even if it means becoming depressed.

Now this next bit really is good news and you will see why we have included it. You can read it online without access problems as it is published under open access provision:

FOUNDATION COURSES: LEARNING ABOUT PCP

Every year PCPA has two Foundation Courses starting at different times. where you can learn the fundamentals of the approach using a variety of learning styles. Tere is a continual cycle. This year one has been April - June and there are two others in the October to December sectoion of the year.

The courses are aimed to provide a sound foundation to the theoretical base of PCP. Personal Construct Psychology is broad and robust, which makes this an approach with wide applicability in clinical settings, in supervision, coaching, staff management, staff development, and organisational change.

The courses are of reasonable cost. Read more and you will see detail of the April start and the October start courses.

The Foundation Course was redesigned in 2010 bringing together Cathy & Clare’s many years of experience teaching PCP, both together and separately. The three units provide a comprehensive introduction to Personal Construct Psychology covering basic theory, focusing on reflexive practice and assisting participants in applying PCP in their own contexts from the outset.

It is possible to attend any of the units individually, which will be of interest to those people who are trying out PCP for the first time, or for people returning to PCP looking for a refresher unit. Attending all three units is equivalent to a Foundation Course and eligibility for further training in PCP.

Each unit will include:

A facilitated discussion of the basic elements of PCP
Handouts supporting the topics covered
Personal and professional applications
Case studies
Reflexive exercises
A complimentary group supervision session within 3 months

Dates in 2015

15th/16th October, 12/13th November, and 3rd/4th December

TESTIMONIALS

“Many thanks for a brilliant course. I thoroughly enjoyed all three units and the success of the group, as well as the lovely people, was in no small part down to your inspired facilitation and teaching”

“Really enjoyable and informative, exactly what professional learning should be about- imparting knowledge, getting you to think and challenge. Thank you.”

“Good value …. can you put a value on a life enhancing principle?”

“I have a new ‘angle’ to live from and view matters from …”

“Taking time to think how I understand behaviour has probably been the most impacting feature of the course.”

“My expectations were met and beyond … A unique learning experience. It was an excellent way of learning in a very supportive environment.”

“A good investment and good value as it is something you can permanently take away and change thinking and practice”

“Transforming, professionally and personally”

Costs

£300 per unit £850 for the series of 3 units

A 3 unit series includes a complimentary supervision session to facilitate application of PCP in participants’ own contexts.

The course will provide an introduction to the theory and principles of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). The theoretical base of PCP is broad and robust, which makes this an approach with wide applicability in clinical settings, but also in supervision, coaching, staff management, staff development, and organisational change. Following completion of the Foundation Course there are opportunities to attend further workshops and supervision in order to help you to begin to apply the theory in your own setting, should you wish.

Personal Construct Psychotherapy, which has developed from PCP, is a flexible approach to therapy which is well suited to consultation and short term work, as well as to more intensive clinical work. It is suitable for all client groups, ages, and ranges of ability. In this age of the quick fix, Personal Construct Psychotherapy is often useful when other therapies have failed to produce sustained improvement.

The course is taught by tutors who are all HCPC registered and have many years of experience in PCP. Between them, they have a range of publications about their therapeutic work using PCP. The tutors are Peter Cummins, Diane Allen, Sally Robbins, Grant Weselby and Heather Moran. A maximum of 12 places are available which means that the group is small enough for both good discussions and personalised teaching. The Foundation Course has always contained a large component of practical exercises which help participants to engage well with the materials presented. This year we will be building on that by introducing a seminar format. Participants will be expected to prepare for sessions in advance in order to benefit from this.

This course is offered in Coventry by the Personal Construct Association (PCPA), and runs for five full days. It is held at The Clarendon Practice, No.44 Park Road, Coventry CV1 2LD, 10.15am – 4pm Details of content can be found on the PCPA website at www.pcpassociation.net

The course dates are all Thursdays: November 5th, 12th, 19th, and 26th, and December 3rd. The course fee is £150 for the whole course, which includes the seminar materials. Trainee psychologists and assistants pay a reduced fee of £130. The fee includes drinks and biscuits but it does not include lunch. Participants are asked to provide their own packed lunch for the short lunch break.

If you would like to attend, please email sally@covpcp.com to book a place. When that is confirmed, you will need to send a cheque made out to PCPA to PCP Foundation Course Applications, The Clarendon Practice, 44 Park Road, Coventry CV2 2LD with details of your name, professional role, personal email address & mobile number (for emergency contact in case of a problem before or during the course).

Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. In the event that there are insufficient numbers to proceed with the course, all monies will be refunded. Please note that the fee cannot be refunded for failure to attend once a place is reserved.